Successful travels

I’m home again. The trip was a good one!

The first part of the trip was to visit a brother and sister-in-law near Pittsburgh. A couple days before he left he said he and his wife wouldn’t be home before 5:00, but they’ll keep a door unlocked and I could come in and make myself at home while I waited for them.

I considered leaving home a bit later. Instead, I contacted an aunt and uncle in northern Ohio and suggested lunch together. They agreed. It was a simple meal with a chance to talk and share news. One topic was to ponder who owned the family farm between the time my great-great-grandfather, the first white owner, died in 1850 and when my great-grandfather took it over about 1905. No answer yet.

And I got to my brother’s place at 5:30 with greetings from both of them. We spent most of Thursday around the house. On Friday we drove to McConnells Mill State Park for some pretty views and pleasant walking. We had supper at Log Cabin Inn north of Zelienople.

Last week I said I was traveling with my performance group. I try to stay anonymous on this blog, which is why I was vague. This evening I remembered that I’ve discussed my passion for performing on handbells before, and verified I indeed had, though the last time was five years ago. So, yes, the purpose of the trip was for my semi-professional concertizing handbell ensemble to give a concert for a multi-state handbell festival in Pennsylvania.

I was on the road heading east at 10:15 Saturday. That was much better than leaving the Detroit area at 6:00 as most of the rest of the group did. After lunch the Pennsylvania Turnpike traffic signs started displaying warnings of severe thunderstorms. Ahead looked like pleasant weather, but over my shoulder the sky was dark. I needed one last stop before Harrisburg. I made it a quick one. I drove through some rain and got to our hotel and performance site around 3:15. We were to be there by 4:00 and the group that came from Detroit beat me by about 10 minutes. The storm hit about 3:20.

Our concert went very well and our audience of over 200 was quiet appreciative. We could show them what it is like to hear their instrument played at a high level. The concert was over about 9:00. In spite of delays getting to use the hotel’s freight elevator for our huge mound of equipment, the trailer was loaded by 10:00. I went promptly to bed.

Alas, I didn’t sleep well, thinking too much about really needing to sleep because the alarm was to go off at 4:45. We were on the road by 6:30 to get to our second concert of the weekend. So I saw very little of the city in which we performed.

That second concert was in a church south of Cleveland. One of our members grew up there and her parents still attend (we saw her confirmation picture on the wall as part of a collection extending from 1953). We were to get there by 1:00. I made it by 1:01.

This second concert also went very well and the acoustics of the church were much better than the hotel ballroom. There were about 60 in the audience, including my aunt and uncle. They had never seen me perform before and delighted to finally have the chance.

The church served us supper. I went to my car at 6:50. A couple cars and the trailer had already gone. A few of our group were still sitting at the church. We were to meet at our home rehearsal space to store the bells for the rest of the summer. I was wanted there because I knew how to pack the closet.

By the time I got there, however, the equipment was stowed. I did have one stop for gas. And I guess I’m much more of a stickler of posted speed limits.

My total trip was 1050 miles, with three-quarters of that in two days.